Ghost and Gunz
by LazyDude
Summary: Story revolves around two best buddies, Rho and Eddie, who have a peaceful yet adventurous life. They happen to meet Marines, Straw-hat crew and many others during their adventures. Still aimless as what to become in Life, they get their answer in a way they never would have expected.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**Valentine Day**

'Valentine Sucks.'

Both guys had same opinion as they stood in market square smoking and staring at the couples who were having a romantic and merry time. Both were 17 and didn't have a girlfriend, while all of their friends were on date. They both had each other and of course Rho's little sister who was happy to get a jumbo strawberry ice-cream and was busy licking it off.

"1000 beli on that hot babe", declared Rho while observing the scene to the right.

"That girl is all talk. I guess I will have to apologize to you for taking 1000 beli from you.", replied Eddie while looking at the direction to which Rho was focused on.

"Do you two really have to keep on betting every time, brother?" Robin asked looking up at both of them, and continued "Most of the times I don't even understand what you two are betting upon".

Eddie and Rho just gave him a smile.

A couple was arguing loudly, providing free entertainment to the people present in the market. Those two stood out from the rest of smiling, happy, romantic sets of couple in the town.

"They sure know how to attract attention" joked Rho.

"Like anyone would miss her if she is going around" added Eddie.

"Being daughter of towns mayor sure has its drawback. You cannot simply walk around without anyone noticing", said Rho.

"She is even beautiful and too hot to not to be looked at!" chuckled Eddie.

SMACK! The girl walked away leaving the guy stunned, standing with his hand on his right cheek that was red, courtesy of the girls hard slap.

"Shit! Pathetic! Humiliating! If he had-"

"First get me my money and then you can continue your theories on what the boy should have done",Rho cut in whatever Eddie had to say, "and get two bottles for me today"

"Come on", said Eddie after returning with four beer bottles from the wine shop across the road, and handing two of it to Rho.

"Robin..." Rho said.

"Don't worry brother I know the way to dojo. I will brush my teeth and sleep early without waiting for you to return." said Robin jumping up and down as she mentioned what her elder brother was going to tell her.

"Did I ever tell you that you are a smart and cute little sister of mine?" Rho asked with his eyebrows raised.

"You say it every time!" Robin replied with a foolish grin that spread to her ears.

Eddie squatted down and kissed her on forehead. "Now go" he whispered. She ran off towards the dojo happily with the ice-cream still in her hand, melting off and leaving a trail.

Ten minutes of walk led them out of the bustling market area and into the silence of the woods. More walk through the steep woods and they reached the edge of the cliff to the south of Captown. They sat down, dangling their legs over the edge of a cliff that has a vertical slope leading straight down to the sea whose waves crashed on the base of the cliff.

"Scary". Both chuckled. It had been 8 years since they discovered this place, and still they found sitting at edge of the cliff 'Scary'.

"Its been half an hour and you are still holding on to those bottles.", Eddie stated his observation to Rho.

He didn't expect a reply.

Something was bothering Rho the entire last week. He knew that Rho would tell him when the time is right. So Eddie just waited patiently.

"Damn" said Rho exhaling loudly while staring to the east. Eddie scanned the eastern waters and saw something coming their way and now could hear roaring of a motor engine as well, and he got the answer to his question - 'why is his buddy behaving strange'. Answer was simple -Girl.

She was the same girl who slapped a guy in market around an hour ago and probably broke up with, today or few days ago. The same girl who rides her flashy motor powered speedboat every weekend around the coast of Captown island. The same girl who is soon going to empty one of the bottles that Rho is holding. She was the mayors daughter.

"Good Luck",Eddie wished.

Rho just nodded. They understood each other very well.

PUFF! And then Rho was gone.

Eddie smiled and said out loud to himself,"At least one of us is going to have a girlfriend after all this years, even if it is the Mayors daughter. Lucky Rich Bitch."

The sun was down completely. Rest of sky was now dark and dotted with sparkling stars. Eddie stared at his now empty bottles and then at the lighthouse and then vertically down into the dark roaring sea beneath his dangling feet. A feeling of vertigo hit him, 'scary' he thought and looked back at the lighthouse to west that stood out in the sea with a trail of rocks connecting it to the island. The trail was not visible as it was high tide. Only a few very high rocks just surfaced above the waves.

Out of corner of his eye in the dark waters he saw a ferry. The sweeping light of lighthouse flashed on the ferry, headed towards the light house, for a second. The ferry was coming from the docks that was on the western side of town. In that moment what Eddie saw brought fear and shock on his face.

Of course, Eddie was a guy who gets sacred easily.

He saw something shiny and sparkling in the hands of men who were on that small ferry that was being rowed towards the lighthouse. Around eight men were aboard it. "Swords!" muttered Eddie to himself in shock and fear.

It was obvious that he was out of the harms way, but still a lump formed in his throat and he started trembling.

"Rho . . . Hina . . .",he whispered to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chicken

"Swords! swords! swords! swords!" chanted Eddie while he fumbled to take out his flare gun and aim it. He could not see his buddy or the girl so he assumed both were on the opposite side of lighthouse's base and he fired. The flare buzzed off passing on right side of lighthouse glowing brightly in red and leaving a red tail and smoke in its wake giving out a loud blasting sound like a cracker just before hitting the water.

Few seconds later Rho appeared beside him.

"Dont tell me you are scared sitting here all alone in the dark", teased Rho. He knew that Eddie could be afraid sometimes, mostly during storms.

Eddie observed that Rho was quite in a good mood but he realized that this is not the time to chit-chat. He just said "swords" once again. Rho raised an eyebrow inquiringly. In response Eddie fired his flare gun in the direction where he thought the ferry would be now. Rho just vanished. He was in the air about forty feet above the boat. In the flares red glow he made out a medium sized ferry, nine men aboard; four were rowing, two were with beer bottles in hand, other two were standing with cutlass in their hands, and the one standing at the head of ship with a broad sword was the boy whom the girl had slapped in the market.

"Revenge sweet revenge! Now when I think back about the slap, it really pissed the boy more than I imagined. But still, murderous intent is what I never thought!" murmured Rho.

Before he could fall into the ocean Rho disappeared from there and was at the base of lighthouse.

"Get your boat and head home. Quick. No questions." ordered Rho. 'Where the hell did he come from now' wondered Hina. Being the pampered mayors daughter Hina was not used to being told what to do. She wanted to ask why is he ordering around to her but, something about Rho's voice stopped her from questioning him. It was like he was worried about something. So she did what she had rarely ever done, quietly followed his order.

The boy with broad sword saw the girl zooming away on her speedboat.

"Row us back. The bitch had escaped, for now. Call other boys through den-den-mushi to head to cliff edge. Some moron over there fired a flare on us. I want that bastard dead." ordered the guy with broad sword in a tipsy tone.

"Time to go home", said Rho appearing beside Eddie. Both of them started walking down the slope and through the woods. But before they could reach town half a dozen boys came running towards them. One of them hurled a knife at Eddie which missed his head by a inch and embedded into a tree trunk behind him.

Eddie screamed like a girl and without giving a second thought ran back into the woods yelling "s-swordsssss . . .".

"Chicken" muttered Rho while standing his ground. Another knife came at him. He moved to right dodging it. One of them slashed his cutlass at Rho's head. Rho ducked, the sharp edge passing inches above his head. Rho arose and punched in the gut of the boy who was about to swing back his cutlass. The boy bent over holding his gut. A knife lodged itself in Rho's left bicep. "Fuck!" he groaned. 'Where the hell did this come from?' wondered Rho while removing the knife. When he looked up his eyes grew wide. A big butchers knife was making its way to his head. With no time to dodge the big sharp weapon he did the last thing he wanted to. Puff! He disappeared.

The two boys standing there just stared in disbelief at the place where their target was standing seconds before. Rho appeared inches away in face of the boy who had thrown the big blade. "Boo", shouted Rho. The guy was shocked and then fainted.

Rho then turned towards the boy who was holding more knives.

"You really have a good aim with your knives", said Rho while walking slowly towards the boy.

"Mind having a match?", Rho said stopping in his track, waving the knife that he had pulled out from his left arm and grinning in a evil way.

The boy hurled one of his many knives while Rho dodged it efficiently.

'As always, training at dojo is really handy.' thought Rho.

"My turn" Rho said with an evil grin and sent his knife flying which hit its target: in his right shoulder. The boy cannot use his arm to throw knives and he realized that it would be good if he quit. Cursing he started running away towards the docks.

"Swords, Swords, Swords", Eddie was still yelling and running towards the edge of cliff. As soon he was in the clearing he turned around walking backwards and halted with his flare gun aimed where he expected his pursuers to emerge from.

"Damn! Why did I run away. For all I know Rho could have handled the brats back there. Why the hell did I run all way back and I am sure some of those filthy dogs were on my tail. Bloody swordsmen!" and Eddie continued cursing aloud.

As soon as he saw movement in one of the bushes he fired. The flare hit the emerging boy on right side of his chest surprising him and burning him a bit. He was hurled back and smashed into a tree. He dropped his dagger and just rolled holding his chest crying in agony of the burn.

"That was the last flare shell." blurted Eddie to himself, exchanging his flare gun for the slingshot that he wore around his neck like a locket. Loaded one of the marble from his pocket in sling shot, stretched and waited. Soon next boy was out with a cutlass in hand.

"Damn swords man", yelled Eddie and let the marble go. It struck the boy on his forehead between his eyes. He closed his eyes and rubbed his left hand where he was hit, stopping in his tracks. Eddie took advantage of this and shot another marble on his slightly visible neck leaving the boy choking for a second. He dropped his weapon and hold onto his neck for it was burning where the marble hit him. THWAK! THWAK! THWAK! Three more marbles hit their mark. "damn this kid" groaned the boy massaging where the next three marbles hit him on his head.

One more boy jumped out of the woods running towards Eddie with his small axe held high. Eddie shot his marble which hit the handle of axe just above the fingers. He was closing in. Eddie hastily tried to take out a marble but failed. The boy swinged his axe down.

"Damn Sword" cursed Eddie and closed his eyes in fear of the oncoming axe. Nothing happened. He only heard a muffled groan, then a Thud! of someone falling. He opened one of his eyes slowly. Saw the boy holding onto his head and rolling on the grass.

"You sure took long. I was just gonna die here right now!"Eddie started yelling "You know if that big axe would have hit me then-"

"CHICKEN", Rho cut in

"Hey! hey! I am not a-", Eddie started.

"Chicken." Rho filled in.

"Hey-". "It was just a small axe Eddie. And that guy is more skinny than you. One kick and you could have flattened him. Instead you prefered to close your eyes and wait for the axe to slice you. Explain this." Rho said with a confident smile.

"One. You are a fighter and train at a dojo. Two, you are good around those sharp knives. And three, for crying out loud, you are a devil fruit user! If you are going to get hit you just teleport yourself elsewhere!" Eddie answered furiously raising both his hands.

"Run off guys! That freak is a devil fruit user! We cant take him down!" the boys who was hit by flare shouted and ran off downhill. Other two followed his example.

"I need rest. Being with you is risky. You just have to get into a fight every other day. Be it some drunk man in a bar, a local rowdy boy from docks, or like today this swordmen or-"

"shut up and start walking" shouted Rho who was already entering into the woods.

Eddie realized he was standing in same place and talking to himself. He jogged upto his buddy and they started for their respective homes to get some rest.

Rho was used to such brawls. Eddie hated it the most. He was skinny, lazy and totally sucked at hand to hand combact unlike Rho who was muscular and good at such stuff.

"and by the way, those were not swordsmen" said Rho before taking leave of his buddy.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3.

The Frozen Peak island.

"Aaaaaaahhhhh. . . . !" Hina shrieked.

She had just woke up from a dream of last evening spent with a stranger on lighthouse enjoying booze. She walked sleepily and when she opened the door to her washroom, that same stranger from her dream popped out from inside.

"Shut up. Its me. You want to wake up the entire town in middle of night?" Rho asked in a low tone.

"how the hell you-" Rho covered her mouth before Hina could yell more and made her sit on bed.

Hina just sat there staring at Rho and breathing heavily. Any one would be freaked out if a guy whom you have just met walked out of your washroom door. You never invited him. He had never been here before. And he just walks out of washroom like it is something normal.

"Good Morning" Rho said.

"huh?"

"I said good morning." Rho repeated.

He then slide the curtains of her window that was facing east. It was still dark outside. But on the horizon a faint glow could be made out that signed daybreak. Silhoute of flocks of seagull could be seen in the sky. Hina kept staring out. Rho sat beside her on the bed. Hina laid her head on his shoulder as the sun was rising, displaying bright colour in shades of red, pink and orange.

Another day for the people of Captown in Grandline had just started.

"Good morning"said Hina with a smile after comprehending what had happened just now.

" better late than never" chuckled Rho as he put an arm around her.

"how did you do that" enquired Hina in a low tone.

"Do what"

"walk out of my washroom. I dont remember me inviting you here" Hina said.

"I was here with you the whole night. I had just been inside to use washroom and you opened the door when I was about to come out."

"just explain in simple words. The door was bolted from outside, no way that you could have gone in there. And I am pretty sure that I did not lock you there myself. So just tell me how." demanded Hina while standing up and looking directly into Rho's eyes.

Rho vanished.

Hina just blinked. Staring at the place where he was sitting just a second ago. She rubbed her eyes. And looked around. But no one was there in her bedroom.

"I guess i was dreaming" Hina muttered.

But she noticed that the curtain was slid aside and the opened window.

'how the hell is the window open. I didnt even get near to it!'.

'or was it my imagination or is he some kind of ghost'.

Hina had read few scary stories where the lighthouse served as a spot for ghost who would haunt anyone that stumbled into the lighthouse on full moon or new moon day.

"hell! Last night was a new moon day. For all i know that guy i met last night could have been a ghost! A wandering spirit".

But that didnt explain the beer that she drank.

'Now why would a spirit hand me beer?'

"to hell with all this" shouted Hina to herself in confusion and jumped on her soft bed to sleep, "few hours of nice nap and I will be fine."

Rho had completed all his morning chores of cleaning the dojo and was making breakfast while humming to himself. He thought back to what happened in morning at Hina's place and a mischievous smile crossed his face.

"yikes,,,,. help,,, damn that hurt like hell. . .aaahh. . .Help. . ..Rho. . . Damn stop it...damn help me someone. . "

'What is Chicken doing here early morning' thought Rho.

He walked out to where the agonies of his friend could be heard from: Jade's usual morning classes of martial arts that involved use of weapons.

What Rho saw made him laugh hysterically. Eddie was standing awkwardly with a bo staff in hand held at an unusual angle. A little kid about age of 10 who was student of Jade was giving a good beating to Eddie while Eddie just shouted and cried in pain.

"Stop" Jade commanded. The small boy, Evan, stopped, bowed to Eddie and went back to rest of his group.

"what a weird kid. First he kept hitting me with his stick for a minute and then bowed saying thankyou and walked off. Never in my life did I ever expect someone thanking me for taking beating from them. Damn you Old lady you could have just told him to stop earlier" yelled Eddie.

"now now buddy show some respect. She is a master in Weapon and all such stuff. You dont wanna make her angry. Ha ha ha. But tell me how did you ended up there" Rho said while taking the bo staff from him.

"well,,,. After last nights incident and also all other incidents from past, I just thought that I should learn something about close combat. And since these sticks are long they are also good to keep away the swordsmen. Right?" Eddie said somewhat nervously.

Rho gave a chuckle, "come inside and have breakfast. You can enjoy some carrots too. We will talk about swords and sticks later."

"And yes we have to go and visit certain person today." Rho added.

"Huh?" Eddie suddenly looked up. He knew what this 'visit certain person' meant. Everytime Rho had mentioned this words, he would be gone for around a week. Eddie would have to stay home and stay out of everyones sight since Rho would lie to his masters that he and Eddie are going on a trek to the Frozen peak island.

-Flashback-

*Two years ago.

It had been three days since they had set sail towards the south with help of log-pose that marks their destination,

The Frozen peak island. The wind was not strong which added one more day to their journey.

"I have heard that only inhabitants there are Flame penguins that have red and black skins and can breath short burning flames." said one of the kids who was in the group aboard the ship.

"Rho looks like we got some first timers here" said Eddie.

"hey Tsuki, this is our third time and still why did we never came across this fire breathing penguin?" Eddie asked their guide.

"come on kids their aint such fire breathing penguins! Its a myth. They get their names because of the red flame patterns on their skin. Nothing else. Though some of them grow about the size of a small house.", guide informed as all the first timers took in new knowledge.

"maybe the fire breathing penguin was not a myth" added a beefy guy who had a shot gun sling across his back and who everyone thought was napping as usual.

"dont scare the kids" said his companion who looked like a walking showroom of all sorts of knives and swords.

"dont you remember that Rhino hunting expedition from twelve years ago?" beefy guy said with a raised eyebrow.

"hey I wanna listen about your hunting trip Nicholas. You never mentioned this Rhino before!" Eddie complained. As always he liked the thought of hunting and carrying guns around. Right now he had a revolver from Nicholas in his hands, though it was not loaded.

Nicholas started while all the kids looked at him in anticipation of what interesting stuff he might say, "Alright alright. Lets see,,,aha. We were chasing a Rhino. We followed him into the high grass where we could not see him but easily make out where it was from crushed grass that it left in its trail-"

"But when we reached the centre of the grass clearing, Rhino was gone-" Razor filled in for him and all heads turned towards him.

"We could make nothing of it untill-" Nicholas said and all heads turned back to him.

"we heard its heavy footsteps going away from us which was outside the grassy area and into the woods-" all heads turned again to Razor.

"when we checked the grass and the soil where the Rhino was and where we heard him stomp away-"

"We noticed that a track of a snake was connecting both the spots-"

"leading to one conclusion that-"

"It was a Rhino who ate a Zoan Devil fruit of Snake type!" exclaimed Nicholas and Razor in union with a big grin.

"aaahhh..." all the kids exclaimed in union.

"or it can be a snake who ate a zoan devil fruit of type Rhinocerous" said a girl.

"I dont think thats the case lil' princess. Snakes dont eat fruits" said Razor while the girl only nodded in affirmative.

"Ya mean to say that it might have been a penguin that had consumed a devil fruit that granted him the power of breathing fire?" Guide asked.

"You got it right Tsuki." smiled Razor.

"We are here. We will dock in a minute" Yelled a sailor who was in the crows nest.

All the kids ran to the side of railing and stared at the gigantic frozen Mountain.

"look! A flame penguin!" chimed a girl excitedly, while all others looked in the direction she pointed.

On a floating ice berg about a size of boat, was standing a Flamed penguin who was staring back at them. Visitors to the island was nothing new for the birds but still they kept their distance.

"who wants to have a roasted penguin for lunch?" Nicholas asked grinning.

"No No No! You can hunt only if we run out of food. I hope you remember the deal" Tsuki frowned at Nicholas who merely laughed.

"Hey Tsuki. Take it easy. He is only pulling your leg", Razor comforted Tsuki.

She relaxed as well as Rho too. Just like Tsuki he too was a animal lover. Plus Rho was pure vegetarian.

"Fire breathing penguin,,, if you are still alive on this icy turf then I am going to pay you a visit." Rho smiled to himself while staring at the lone Flamed penguin.

**end of flashback*

* to be continued.

:)

A/N:

Please review so that i will know if its up to your liking. Also let me know if you got some questions about the story, and if i have made any spelling or grammatical errors.

See you soon.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hi everyone! Wassup!

"Pardon me, for this is not the chapter update.  
I would like you to know that I was bed ridden due to some shitty viral fever which also caused my eyes to burn whenever i face the screen!

And that Shit head of a Surgeon of Death was nowhere to be found.  
*feels someones stare at my back.

Law: Interesting. Were you really searching for me?

"You cant scare me like you do with others you shitty doctor. You wont to appear in my story or not?

"You really think that a rookie author like you can talk like that to a supernova! Really, you are amusing. But first i will have to teach you a lesson on respect. *makes room and takes out his nodaichi.

"guys i figure i gotta hide my ass for the time being. I will update soon. And yeah let me know if you want 1 the flash back to continue  
Or 2 to find out who this mystery person is that Rho visits and what they are about to do.  
SLASH!

"he started the onslaught. Time to run, well let me know,,,. See you untill next time,,,

Law: you are not gonna run away Lazy Author!


End file.
